U.S. patent number 4,420,051 [Application Number 06/308,547] was granted by the patent office on 1983-12-13 for weighing apparatus.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Ishida Koki Seisakusho. Invention is credited to Mitsuru Furuta, Takeo Nakashimizu.
United States Patent |
4,420,051 |
Furuta , et al. |
December 13, 1983 |
Weighing apparatus
Abstract
A weighing apparatus which has a plurality of lines for
conveying and weighing including means for continuously conveying a
group of articles to be weighed, and which are thrown in either
automatically or manually, means for sequentially weighing the
group of articles on the means for conveying, means for storing the
weight values of the group of articles in predetermined numbers in
each conveying and weighing line, means for adding any of, or a
predetermined different combination of, the stored weight values,
and means for discriminating the set weight nearest to the set
weight. This weighing apparatus can automatically weigh even
articles which cannot be automatically supplied.
Inventors: |
Furuta; Mitsuru (Shiga,
JP), Nakashimizu; Takeo (Shiga, JP) |
Assignee: |
Kabushiki Kaisha Ishida Koki
Seisakusho (Kyoto, JP)
|
Family
ID: |
11782814 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/308,547 |
Filed: |
October 1, 1981 |
PCT
Filed: |
January 26, 1981 |
PCT No.: |
PCT/JP81/00017 |
371
Date: |
October 01, 1981 |
102(e)
Date: |
October 01, 1981 |
PCT
Pub. No.: |
WO81/02204 |
PCT
Pub. Date: |
August 06, 1981 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 1, 1980 [JP] |
|
|
55-11615 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
177/25.12;
177/52; 177/145; 198/465.3 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G01G
13/22 (20130101); G01G 19/393 (20130101); G01G
13/003 (20130101); G01G 19/30 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G01G
13/22 (20060101); G01G 13/00 (20060101); G01G
19/30 (20060101); G01G 19/00 (20060101); G01G
019/22 (); G01G 013/00 (); G01G 019/00 (); B65G
037/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;177/25,1,52-56,145
;198/504,472,473,680 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Miller, Jr.; George H.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Armstrong, Nikaido, Marmelstein
& Kubovcik
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A weighing apparatus comprising a plurality of transfer and
weighing lines each consisting of a bucket conveyor having a
plurality of buckets for transferring objects to be weighed, and a
weighing unit for weighing the buckets with objects held therein,
said apparatus being adapted to drive the bucket conveyors to
successively weigh the object held in the buckets, store a
predetermined number of measured weight values of the objects for
each line, and compute a desired or predetermined number of
combinations of the stored weight values to obtain a combination
which provides a preset weight or a value nearest thereto.
2. A weighing apparatus comprising a plurality of transfer and
weighing lines each comprising means for transferring objects to be
weighed and means for weighing said objects on the way of transfer,
means for storing a predetermined number of weight values of the
objects thus measured for each line, and means for performing a
desired or predetermined number of combinational computations of
measured weight values and judging the combinations to pick out one
equal or nearest to the preset weight.
3. A weighing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein said
bucket conveyor includes driving and driven sprocket wheels, roller
chains extending between and entrained around said sprocket wheels,
and means for driving said driving sprocket wheels, each of said
roller chains having a plurality of brackets arranged at
predetermined intervals of space along said roller chain, and
horizontally extending attaching shafts fixed to said brackets
through attaching elements, each of said buckets having
horizontally projecting bucket shafts, and attaching brackets
having an inverted U-shaped elongated hole for receiving said
attaching shaft.
4. A weighing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein said
transferring means is a bucket conveyor which transfers a plurality
of buckets for holding objects to be weighed from a charging
section where said objects are charged into said buckets to a
weighing section having a weighing unit and a device for placing
said buckets on said weighing unit and thereafter to a discharge
section having a device for tilting the buckets to discharge the
objects therein.
5. A weighing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said
bucket conveyor transfer the buckets in a circulatory manner from
said charging section to said weighing section and then to said
discharge section, and said discharge device selectively operates
in response to an external signal.
6. A weighing apparatus as set forth in claim 5, including means
for imparting said signal to the discharge device only with respect
to buckets which correspond to the combination equal or nearest to
the preset weight, wherein the objects held in the buckets not
corresponding to said combination are allowed to take part in other
combinations.
7. A weighing method which comprises providing a plurality of
transfer and weighing lines each consisting of a bucket conveyor
having a plurality of buckets for transferring objects to be
weighed, and a weighing unit for weighing the buckets with the
objects held therein, driving the bucket conveyor to successively
weigh the objects in the buckets, storing a predetermined number of
measured weight values of the objects for each transfer and
weighing line, performing a desired or predetermined number of
combinational computations of a plurality of stored weight values
so as to obtain a combination equal or nearest to the preset
weight.
8. A weighing apparatus comprising a plurality of transfer and
weighing lines each comprising means for transferring objects to be
weighed and means for weighing said objects on the way of transfer,
means for storing a predetermined number of weigh values of the
objects thus measured for each line, and means for performing a
desired or predetermined number of combinational computations of
measured weight values and judging the combinations to pick out one
equal or nearest to the preset weight, wherein said bucket conveyor
includes driving and driven sprocket wheels, roller chains
extending between and entrained around said sprocket wheels, and
means for driving said driving sprocket wheels, each of said roller
chains having a plurality of brackets arranged at predetermined
intervals of space along said roller chain, and horizontally
extending attaching shafts fixed to said brackets through attaching
elements, each of said buckets having horizontally projecting
bucket shafts, and attaching brackets having an inverted U-shaped
elongated hole for receiving said attaching shaft, and wherein said
means for placing the buckets on the weighing pan of the weighing
unit includes a guide plate lying in the same vertical plane as
that in which the roller chain travels, and a pair of sprocket
wheels disposed on both sides of said guide plate and aligned with
the latter in the direction of travel of said roller chain, said
guide plate having a guide surface in the form of a circular arc on
the end thereof, the arrangement being such that the roller chain
travels from one of said pair of sprocket wheels via said guide
surface to the other, during which travel the bucket vertically
descends and is temporarily disengaged from the roller chains and
supported on the weighing pan of the weighing unit.
Description
The present invention relates to a weighing apparatus, which uses
combinational analysis and a transfer systems of simple mechanisms,
thereby making it possible to automatically weigh not only objects
which can be automatically fed and weighed but also other objects
which it has heretofore been impossible to automatically weigh
because they cannot be automatically fed, the intention being to
provide a preset weight value or a value nearest thereto.
To this end, the invention provides a weighing apparatus comprising
a plurality of transfer and weighing lines each consisting of a
bucket conveyor having a plurality of buckets for transferring
objects to be weighed, and a weighing unit for weighing the buckets
with objects held therein, said apparatus being adapted to drive
the bucket conveyors to successively weigh the objects held in the
buckets, store a predetermined number of measured weight values of
the objects for each transfer and weighing line, and compute a
desired or predertermaned number of combinations of the stored
weight values to obtain a combination which provides a preset
weight value or a value nearest thereto.
According to the invention, not only objects which can be
automatically fed and automatically weighed can be automatically
weighed but also other objects which it has heretofore been
impossible to automatically weigh because they cannot be
automatically fed, can be automatically weighed by manually feeding
them. Further, a target weight or a weight nearest thereto can be
obtained in a short time by electronic circuitry, while the objects
which have not taken part in the optimum combination can be weighed
again to be used in other combinational computations, thereby
increasing the computational capacity. As compared with this type
of conventional weighing apparatus based on combinational
computation, the number of weighers required is only 1/2 to 1/3 as
large and the large-sized pool hopper and weighing hopper are
dispensed with, so that the entire apparatus is simple.
This and other objects and features of the invention will become
more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction
with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a schematic elevational side view of a weighing apparatus
according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragmental perspective view of a bucket conveyor shown
in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 1, showing means
for placing buckets on a weighing unit;
FIG. 4 is a section taken along the line IV--IV of FIG. 3; and
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of electronic circuitry for the weighing
apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, the numeral 1 denotes a bucket conveyor having a number
of buckets 5 attached to a pair of roller chains 4 meshing with
driving and driven sprocket wheels 2 and 3. The numeral 6 denotes a
drive motor for the bucket conveyor 1. The numeral 7 denotes a
weighing unit for weighing objects fed into the buckets 5, disposed
below the bucket conveyor 1. The numeral 8 denotes guide plates for
guiding the buckets 5 to the weighing pan 9 of the weighing unit 7
so as to place them on said weighing pan, with sprocket wheels 10
and 11 of small diameter disposed on opposite sides of said
weighing pan, the arrangement being such that the roller chains 4
move horizontally and then around the sprocket wheels 10 to descend
along the guide plates 8 and then they ascend along the guide
plates 8 until they return to their horizontal travel, as will be
later described. The numeral 12 denotes a discharge chute disposed
below the end of the bucket conveyor 1; the numeral 13 denotes a
collecting conveyor; and 14 denotes a timing hopper. As will be
later described, it is so arranged that after combinational
computations of the weight values of objects weighed by the
weighing unit 7 have been made, the buckets containing the objects
corresponding to the combination providing the preset weight value
or a value nearest thereto are tipped above the discharge chute 12
as shown in phantom line by a bucket tipping mechanism (not shown),
so that the objects are discharged through the discharge chute 12
onto the collecting conveyor 13 and then into the timing hopper
14.
The buckets 5 of the bucket conveyor 1 are attached to the roller
chains 4 in the manner shown in FIG. 2. Thus, an attaching element
16 having an attaching shaft 15 fixed thereto is vertically fixed
to an L-shaped bracket 17 fixed to the roller chain 4, while a
bucket shaft 18 is fixed to a lateral surface of the bucket 5. An
inverted U-shaped attaching bracket 20 having elongated opening 19
formed therein is suspendedly fixed to said bucket shaft 18 and the
attaching shaft 15 is inserted in said elongated opening 19. The
attaching shaft 15 and bucket shaft 18 are aligned with each other.
The above arrange-ment is also provided on the opposite lateral
surface of the bucket 5. In this way, the buckets 5 are attached to
the pair of roller chains 4 (see FIG. 4).
A concrete arrangement for successively placing the buckets 5 on
the weighing pan 9 of the weighing unit 7 will now be described
with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The lower end of each guide plate
8 is semicircular and the sprocket wheels 10 and 11 of the same
diameter are disposed close thereto and on a level with each other.
The guide plate 8 and sprocket wheels 10 and 11 are disposed in the
same vertical plane so that the rollers 21 of the roller chain 4
are in contact with and roll on the peripheral surface 8' of the
guide plate 8. The guide plate 8 and sprocket wheels 10 and 11 are
installed on each side of the path of travel of the buckets 5, as
shown in FIG. 4. In addition, in FIG. 3, the character y indicates
the path of travel of the roller chain 4 and x indicates the path
of travel of the attaching shaft 15. A point A is the lowest point
of travel of the attaching shaft 15 and is fixed and a point B is
the lowest point of travel of the bucket shaft 18, said point B
vertically varying with the weight of objects to be measured.
A plurality of transfer and measuring lines (hereinafter referred
to briefly as the lines) each comprising, as described above, the
bucket conveyor 1 composed of the driving and driven sprocket
wheels 2 and 3 and a number of buckets 5, the weighing unit 7, the
discharge chute 12, and the guide plates 8 and sprocket wheels 10
and 11 for successively placing the buckets 5 on the weighing pan 9
of the weighing unit 7 are installed side by side and the bucket
conveyors 1 are driven by the motor 6, each line operating by
successively measuring the objects held in the buckets 5, storing a
predetermined number of weight values, computing combinations of
any suitable number of predetermined number of stored weight
values, and discharging the objects corresponding to the preset
weight value or a value nearest thereto onto the collecting
conveyor 13 through the discharge chute 12 and then into the timing
hopper 14, thereby collecting the objects at a single place.
The arrangement of the electronic circuitry of this invention will
now be described with reference to FIG. 5. In addition, the parts
of the individual lines having the same construction are given the
same reference character. The numeral 22 denotes an input selector;
23 denotes an A/D converter; and 24 denotes a microcomputer
(hereinafter referred to as CPU). In response to control signals a
from the CPU 24, analog weight signals from the weighing unit 7 are
successively transferred from the input selector 22 one by one to
the A/D converter 23, where they are converted into digital
signals, which are then transferred to the CPU 24. The CPU receives
a computation command signal .alpha., a bucket detection signal
.beta. and a tare storage signal .gamma. to control said input
selector 22 and A/D converter 23 and perform tare subtractions,
combinational computations and control of the tipping of buckets 5.
The numeral 25 denotes a program storing section for storing
programs for operation of the CPU 24; 26 denotes a tare storing
section for storing the respective weights of the buckets 5 as
tares; 27 denotes a net weight storing section for storing the
weight of objects to be weighed; 28 denotes an optimum combination
storing section for storing a preset weight value or a value
nearest thereto, i.e., an optimum combination at the end of
combinational operation; and 29 denotes an indicating section for
indicating the weight of objects being weighed, the preset weight
value and the deviation of the total of the weights corresponding
to the optimum combination. All these sections are connected to the
CPU 24. The numeral 30 denotes discharge drive sections each for
driving the bucket tipping mechanism (not shown) which tips buckets
5 in the associated line when necessary, the arrangement being such
that when a bucket 5 selected for combination reaches the discharge
chute 12, a discharge command signal b from the CPU 24 actuates the
bucket tipping mechanism to tip the bucket 5 so as to discharge the
objects therein into the discharge chute 12.
The function of the embodiment arranged in the manner described
above is as follows.
First, the bucket conveyor 1 of each line is driven through one
cycle so that the respective weights of the buckets 5 are
successively measured by the associated weighing unit 7. Prior to
this bucket weight measurement, the computation command signal
.alpha. and tare storage command signal .gamma. have been inputted
into the CPU 24. The respective weights of the buckets 5 are
successively transferred in the form of an analog signal from the
associated weighing unit 7 to the input selector 22, from which
said analog weight signals from the weighing unit 7 are then
transferred one by one to the A/D converter 23 in response to
control signals a from the CPU 24. The transferred weight signals
are converted into digital signals by the A/D converter 23 and then
transferred to the CPU 24. Since the tare storage command signals
.gamma. have been inputted in the CPU 24, the respective weights of
the buckets 5 are stored as tares in the tare storage section 26.
When the weights of all of the buckets 5 have been stored in the
storage section 26, the tare storage command signals .gamma. stored
in the CPU 24 are automatically or manually released and then the
bucket conveyor 1 is continuously driven while objects to be
weighed are automatically or manually put successively into the
buckets 5 moving on the conveyor 1. Buckets 5 which have
transferred along the lower run of the converyor toward the
weighing unit 7.
The buckets 5 are successively placed on the weighing pan 9 of the
weighing unit 7 in the following manner. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 3
and 4, until the bucket 5 reaches the sprocket wheels 10, it is
attached to the attaching shafts 15 with the attaching elements 16
fixed to the roller chains 4 being held vertical (see FIG. 2), and
in this state the attaching elements 16 turn counterclockwise
through 90.degree. along the sprocket wheels 10 until they are
horizontal, the path of travel of the attaching shafts 15 being
indicated by the phantom line x. Therefore, the bucket 5, as
attached to the attaching shafts 15, descends in its horizontal
state until it sits on the weighing pan 9, when the attaching
elements 16 become horizontal, the path of travel of the bucket
shafts 18 being indicated by the phantom line x. As the roller
chains 4 move along the peripheral surfaces 8' of the guide plates
8, the attaching elements 16 descend in their horizontal state and
the weighing pan 9 supporting the bucket 5 also descends but
slightly, with the attaching shafts 15 separating from the
attaching brackets 20 and descending to the position of the lowest
point of travel A. At this time, the attaching shafts 15 have been
completely isolated from the attaching brackets 20, allowing the
bucket 5 to be supported on the weighing pan 9. In this state, the
bucket 5 is weighed. With the further travel of the roller chains
4, the attaching elements 16 half turn clockwise around the lowest
point of travel A along the guide plates 8 to resume the horizontal
state and ascend in their horizontal state until the attaching
shafts 15 again engage the attaching brackets 20. Thus, the bucket
5 the weighing of which has just been completed is supported again
by the roller chains 4 and the attaching elements 16 ascend in
their horizontal state and hence the weighing pan 9 ascends back to
its original position. The attaching elements 16 ascending in their
horizontal state lift the bucket 5 to separate it from the weighing
pan 9 and turn counterclockwise through 90.degree. along the
sprocket wheels 11 to resume the vertical state (see FIG. 2). The
bucket 5 is then transferred to a position above the discharge
chute 12.
In this way, the buckets 5 having objects to be weighed put therein
are successively weighed simultaneously in all of the lines.
On the other hand, the measured weight values provided by the
weighing unit 7 in each line are transferred to the input selector
22 as analog weight signals and then transferred one by one to the
A/D converter 23 in response to control signals a. The weight
signals thus transferred are converted into digital weight signals
by the A/D converter 23 and then transferred to the CPU 24. The
weight of the corresponding bucket 5 is read out of the tare
storage section 26 in which the respective weights of the buckets 5
are stored, and it is transferred to the CPU 24, where the net
weight of the objects in each bucket is computed by subtracting the
weight of the bucket 5 from the weight value from the A/D converter
23. The net weight thus computed is stored in the net weight
storage section 27.
The net weights of the objects in the respective buckets are
successively computed and are stored in the net weight storage
section 27 in groups each consisting of a predetermined number of,
e.g., three net weights for each line. Thus, if there are 3 lines,
a total of 9 weight values are used in the computation of a desired
or predetermined number of combinations of such values which is
performed in the CPU 24 and a particular combination of weight
values which is equal or nearest to the present weight is selected.
The selected combination is stored in the storage section 28. In
addition, the preset weight, the net weight of the objects being
weighed and the deviation of the total weight values corresponding
to the optimum combination from the preset value are indicated in
the indication section 29.
Buckets which have undergone weighing are successively conveyed and
when they reach a position above the discharge chute 12, they are
detected by a detector (not shown) and bucket detection signals
.beta. for each line are fed to the CPU 24. The CPU 24 judges
whether or not such a signal .beta. corresponds to the signal
associated with a bucket 5 corresponding to the combination stored
in the optimum combination storage section 28 and if it does, the
CPU 24 sends a discharge command signal b to the discharge drive
section 30, with the result that the bucket tipping mechanism (not
shown) is actuated to tip the corresponding bucket 5 to discharge
the content thereof into the discharge chute 12. The objects
discharged from the respective buckets corresponding to the
combination stored in the optimum combination storage section 28
are collected in the timing hopper 14 by the collecting conveyor 13
and supplied to a packaging machine or the like (not shown). The
buckets 5 emptied of their contents travel on the upper run of the
bucket conveyor 1, during which objects to be weighed are put again
into them manually or automatically.
On the other hand, if the bucket detection signal .beta. is judged
not to correspond to the signal associated with the bucket
corresponding to the combination stored in the optimum combination
storage section 28, no discharge command signal b is sent from the
CPU 24, so that the bucket 5 is not tipped and is conveyed together
with its content to the upper run of the bucket conveyor 1 and
weighed again by the weighing unit 7 and the net weight value of
the objects therein is used in other combinational
computations.
In addition, the number of buckets 5 in each line is a multiple of
the number of weight values used in combinational computations for
each line, plus or minus 1. For example, in the illustrated
embodiment, since the number of lines is 3 and since 3 weight
values are used in each line, the number of buckets 5 in each line
is, e.g., 16. This measure prevents the same buckets 5 from being
used in combinational computations. Further, while the number of
buckets 5 present between the weighing unit 7 and the discharge
chute 12 is equal to the number of weight values used for
combinational computations in the illustrated embodiment, more
buckets may be present. In that case, the capacity of the net
weight storage section 27 must be increased. Further, in the
illustrated embodiment, combinational computations are performed
with 3 weight values in each line, namely, 9 weight values in
total, but the number is not limited thereto; for example, the
number of lines may be 4, and 2 weight values for each line and
hence 8 weight values in total may be used to perform combinational
computations. Thus, the number of weight values may be determined
according to the need. Further, while the collecting conveyor 13
has been used to collect at a place the objects discharged from the
respective lines, such a conveyor may not be used and instead the
discharge chute 12 of each line may be extended to a position above
the timing hopper 14. Further, the means for placing the buckets 5
on the weighing unit 7 is not limited to the illustrated guide
plates 8 and sprocket wheels 10, 11. Further, the conveyors 1 may
be either continuously or intermittently driven, but continuous
drive is more preferable in consideration of impacts due to a
repetition of stoppage.
* * * * *